Internationalization of SMEs in high potential markets

While interest in global supply chain is immense, knowledge about how it affects internationalization of SME is still underdeveloped. This has contributed to the existence of a literature gap. Specifically, in the agro-food industry, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are unable to internalize the global supply chain for exporting their products abroad. Thus, the role of consolidators in SMEs' global supply chain is central for their internationalization strategies. Despite of the relevance of consolidators for internationalization of SMEs few articles analyze their role in global supply chain. At the aim to fill this literature gap our analysis provides an analytical investigation of consolidators' role in internationalization of SMEs. Our study is firstly based on a desk analysis able to evidence the relevance of the some markets for Italian agro-food goods. Then we discuss an interesting case study. The article suggests to researchers and policy-makers new perspectives on the relevance of global supply chain for competitiveness of agro-food SMEs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.